Explore the art and science of app design. Discuss user interface (UI) design principles, user experience (UX) best practices, and share design resources and inspiration.

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CloudKit not storing or updating public data in real time.
My newly released App Snapshot-Chess-Move, #1592848671, is not creating a public database of chess moves as I expect. What steps do I need to do inorder for my App to be using a public database. It appears as if each of my iOS devices, iPhone, iPad and Mac mini each have a private database of chess moves. When I change my data on the iPad, I expect the new data to appear (with slight delays) on the Mac.. I do not know what to do next. Please help me. This was working in Development mode but not in Production when I submitted my App for release. UPDATE: The cloud data is copied locally to a @Quary variable and updated by using .insert, .delete and .save commands. So, I deleted and re-downloaded my apps on each device, iPad, iPhone, and Mac and obtained the same cloud data. So how do users get the most recent copy of the cloud. Do they need to delete their App and start over? Is there a .update command that can do this updating for me? Also, I pushed the App out of the background and restarted the App to obtain the updated cloud data.
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
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199
Apr ’25
iPad/iPhone - Display best practices….
So…I am hitting a wall here and could use some guidance towards best practice. I’ve developed an app in Xcode/SwiftUI that renders just fine on the iPhone - text, images, buttons, frames…everything is nicely centered on the screen or scrolls where and when I want. The iPad though…not so much. I’m having issues with tops and bottoms being cut off in scrollviews. These are just straight up text screens too - the ones with other elements/controls…they’re rendering fine. I’ve tried a mix of geometry, vstack, scrollview, padding, spacers…the lot of it. Nothing I seem to do works - the views do not want to fill and fit properly. And, of course, the issue becomes worse the moment you flip the iPad into landscape view. Or use the 13” models. I’d imagine others are battling these issues as well and found solutions, so I decided to hit up the brain trust.
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219
Apr ’25
'tabViewBottomAccessory' leaves an empty container when conditionally hidden
We use SwiftUI's .tabViewBottomAccessory in our iOS apps for displaying an Audio MiniPlayer View (like in the Apple Music App). TabView(selection: $viewModel.selectedTab) { // Tabs here } .tabViewBottomAccessory { if viewModel.showAudioMiniPlayer { MiniPlayerView() } } The Problem This code works perfectly on iOS 26.0. When 'viewModel.showAudioMiniPlayer' is 'false', the accessory is completely hidden. However, on iOS 26.1 (23B5059e), when 'viewModel.showAudioMiniPlayer' is 'false', the MiniPlayerView disappears, but an empty container remains, leaving a blank space above the tab bar. Is this a known Bug in iOS 26.1 and are there any effective workarounds or should I just wait until Apple fixed it?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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1.8k
Oct ’25
Scrollview and a background image set to scaledToFill....
I've been beating my head against the wall over a scrollview issue where the top and bottom are cut off in landscape mode. Portrait mode - everything runs swimmingly. The moment I flip the iPad on its side, though, I lose about a quarter of the view on the top and bottom. I thought this was something to do with framing or such; I ran through a myriad of frame, padding, spacer, geometry...I set it static, I set it to dynamically grow, I even created algorithms to try to figure out how to set things to the individual device. Eventually, I separated the tablet and phone views as was suggested here and on the Apple dev forums. That's when I started playing around with the background image. Right now I have.... ZStack { Image("background") .resizable() .scaledToFill() .ignoresSafeArea() ScrollView { VStack(spacing: 24) {.... The problem is the "scaledToFill". In essence, whenever THAT is in the code, the vertical scrollview goes wonky in landscape mode. It, in essence, thinks that it has much more room at the top and the bottom because the background image has been extended at top and bottom to fill the wider screen of the iPad in landscape orientation. Is there any way to get around this issue? The desired behavior is pretty straightforward - the background image fills the entire background, no white bars or such, and the view scrolls against it.
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174
Apr ’25
Urgent Feature Request: Auto-Hide Home Bar in iOS 18.x Based on iOS 26 Beta Experience
Hello Apple Engineering Team and Fellow Developers, I’ve been using iOS 26 beta from day one and closely following all its improvements. One feature that significantly enhances the user experience is the automatic hiding of the Home Bar (the bottom navigation indicator) after a few seconds of inactivity in menus and apps. This subtle but powerful UI behavior not only increases immersion but also reduces distractions, making navigation smoother and visually cleaner. I strongly urge the Apple team to integrate this feature into the upcoming iOS 18.6 update. Bringing this polished interaction to iOS 18 users would greatly improve usability and keep the interface modern and elegant. Thank you for your continuous efforts in refining iOS. Looking forward to seeing this improvement officially adopted soon! Best regards, [ERFANEX]
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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587
Jul ’25
The airdrop was sent to the wrong device. Will modifying the interface in this way reduce the error
I have many Apple devices, such as macbook, iPad and iPhone. It's very convenient for me to transfer files between devices. However, when I want to send files to my own device in public places, I often click on the wrong recipient because the list avatar keeps changing. I hope the list of recipients can be grouped One group is my own device (or the one I often send to), and the other group is other devices. When the user is about to send, the mouse will be in a relatively fixed and mentally expected area. I feel that this can reduce the probability of sending wrongly
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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680
Nov ’25
Too large clock size on iOS 26 Lock Screen.
The clock on the lock screen is too big. This is very noticeable on the serif font, the maximum size goes beyond the frame, and rests on the frame of the phone display. (Screenshot 1 & Screenshot 3) This is especially evident if you use the enlarged interface (using the Large Text function), here the time goes completely out of the frame and conflicts with the frame of the phone screen. (Screenshot 2 & Screenshot 4)
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
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1.1k
Jan ’26
Guideline 5.2.5 - Legal - Intellectual Property
Your app still contains features that mimic the iOS interface or behavior. I have a simple app that uses a NavigationSplitView 3 panels I have a section for Filters and User created Categories in Panel 1 A list of "Requests" from the selected Filters/Categories in Panel 2 and details of a request in Panel 3 It's designed to be simple and easy to use. How can it NOT "mimic the iOS interface" if I am using their own APIs? What should I do to get around this
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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1.9k
Jan ’26
Live Weather Radar Overlay in CarPlay Maps
Hi all — I wanted to share an idea I recently submitted through Feedback Assistant that I think could improve safety and usability for drivers using CarPlay: Add an option to overlay live weather radar (rain, snow, storms, etc.) directly onto CarPlay Maps while navigating. Similar to how traffic conditions are shown now, this would allow drivers to visually track incoming weather in real time without switching apps or relying on separate devices. Why this matters: • Enhances driver safety by increasing situational awareness • Helps with trip planning and route adjustments around severe weather • Reduces distractions by integrating everything into one screen • Useful for everyday drivers, long-haul travelers, and first responders I submitted this via Feedback Assistant, but I’d love to know what others think. If you also see value in this feature, consider submitting your own version via Feedback Assistant so Apple sees there’s interest. Let’s push for smarter, safer navigation — thanks for reading!
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818
Jul ’25
Sell UI patent to Apple
I've designed a new UI for phones.. I'd like Apple to look at it and see what they think https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10QSQvAdRRkL-eA9WRsSEbsL62XIayJ75Mbi93tx92DI/edit?usp=drive_link
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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799
Jan ’26
Struggling creating a custom SF Symbol: The provided variants are not interpolatable
Hi, I am trying to create a custom SF Symbol from an SVG file created with Affinity Designer but, even though my SVG file look perfect in Firefox for example compared to the exported custom.circle.svg file (as recommended in Apple's documentation), I fail to get rid of this error: "The provided variants are not interpolatable" My creation process using Affinity Designer is: Export as SVG file Duplicate the custom.circle.svg file exported from the SF Symbols app In the new file, replace the 3 "path" tags in the "g" sections "id="Black-S", "Regular-S", "Ultralight-S" with the paths from the SVG file exported from Affinity designer Set the 3 transform matrices to "matrix(1 0 0 1 0 0)" for the 3 variants to be generated at the correct location. Verify in an SVG viewer that the file looks correct. Import the file via Drag&Drop into the SF Symbols app. What is wrong with my file? Thank you in advance for any help, Marc mySymbol.svg.txt
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
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200
Jun ’25
CPContactTemplate does not display buttons iOS26
I'm trying to display CPButtons (CPContactCallButton, CPContactMessageButton) in CPContactTemplate. They are displayed using device with iOS16, but with iOS26 device CPContactTemplate only displays contact image and contact name. No buttons. Is it a bug? I don't have iOS17/18 devices to try.
Topic: Design SubTopic: General Tags:
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345
Feb ’26
Ask about SF symbols
Hi, I would like to make an educational app for helping my students to learn about malaria diagnosis and need to put some animal icon. In the tabview, is it possible to use system images like monkey, bird, mouse. I cannot see these animals in SF symbol list.
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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173
May ’25
IS THE SWiPE LEFT CAMERA MODE REALLY IMPORTANT?
I have really examined the swipe left Camera function mode and sincerely believe it is no more important especially when there no option in the settings to turn it on or off. I will highly recommend a total scrap in the iOS 26 or if possible a function to activate and deactivate it.
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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343
Aug ’25
Notification badge with no indication number
I'm looking for a way to display a notification badge without showing a number—essentially, just an empty badge to indicate the presence of notifications. From my research, it seems like this functionality isn't available . Is there any workaround or method to achieve this?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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128
May ’25
Color folder and tags
I’m delighted with the introduction of new color folders. Although, I can’t help but wonder why we still need both color folders and tags. Aren’t the color folders sufficient for our needs?
Topic: Design SubTopic: General
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1.2k
Aug ’25